Holiday Card Sparks Political Conversations

“One of our favorite holiday traditions is our holiday card. I know they are horribly old fashioned and, in this digital age, soon to be a distant memory. Still, we love them.”

I’m sure you’re like us, each year the holiday season seems to creep up faster and faster. It seemed like we hadn’t finished putting up our Halloween decorations when the Christmas merchandise started showing up in stores. Still, each year we strive to celebrate the holidays one at a time and enjoy them as a family.

My husband and I have always been a little over the top with holidays. You can stop pretending to be surprised (smiles). I think it’s because the holidays have a way of bringing friends and family together as well as giving us an opportunity to make new friends. One of our favorite holiday traditions is our holiday card. I know they are horribly old fashioned and, in this digital age, soon to be a distant memory. Still, we love them. It gives us a chance to stay connected and reconnect with the people that have meant something to us throughout the past year.

This year our holiday card had an unintended effect. It seems they sparked a conversation in a number of homes across the country. Several of our friends wrote back that their children saw our card and began asking about the two men with the baby. With marriage equality becoming a topic on the news, it seems a lot of young minds are struggling with these concepts.

Below is an excerpt from a response we received from a dear friend on the East Coast.

“So tonight, my daughters opened your card; they then asked what your relationship was with each other. (NJ having just passed it, same sex marriage is a new concept for them.) Rather than wrap themselves in knots, as so many adults are known to do, it immediately came down to practical questions:

1. What food did they have at their wedding?

2. Did they have a cake? Was it chocolate or vanilla?

3. Did they wear suits or tuxedos? I like suits.

4. They dress really nice Daddy, like you do when you’re not wearing a uniform, can you grow a beard?

5. Their daughter is pretty, can we have a play date?”

Another friend with young boys saw the card and quizzically asked their mom, “So…….they are two men and they are married? …and they have a baby? How did they do that?” It filled our hearts with great pride to hear our friends taking this opportunity to talk to future generations about how families are different all over the world; how some families have a mommy and daddy, some have two mommies or two daddies and some have only one mommy or daddy. There are so many family structures, the key is the love they share.

It was never our intent to make our card a political statement, just as it’s never been our intent for this blog to be a political platform. Instead we were just sharing our family and the joys we’ve been blessed with. As we get closer to the delivery date for our son, it fills our heart with great hope to know future generations don’t really question the love part. Things are so simple for children. They skip right to the heart of the topic—“what kind of cake did they serve?”

Sadly we didn’t get to have a cake. When California first began issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples back in 2008 my husband and I immediately boarded a plane to Beverly Hills. While we didn’t get the opportunity to have a ceremony with all of our friends and family we are optimistic that some day that will happen.

While Texas may not be one of the leading states in this front it is our hope that some day we will be able to be married here, in the State we love, surrounded by the people we care about and, to answer your question, there will be two cakes (including a Red Velvet groom’s cake in the shape of an armadillo). The main cake, well I’m not sure yet.